Will Kentucky prep star jump from Louisville's Pitino to U's Pitino?

In this morning's Sid Hartman column, you can read about Louisville high school star and point guard Quentin Snider, who changed his mind last week about the verbal commitment he made two years ago to play college basketball for Louisville.

Sid writes: "An interesting story broke this weekend with news that point guard Quentin Snider, the 31st-ranked basketball player in the Class of 2014 according to Rivals.com, had broken off from his verbal commitment to Louisville. Snider is from Louisville and had committed to the school and coach Rick Pitino nearly two years ago after the school was the first to offer him a scholarship as a freshman in high school. But now Snider has reopened his recruitment and Gophers coach Richard Pitino, Rick’s son,was the first person to call and offer him a scholarship."

Steve Jones of the Louisville Courier-Journal reported recently that Richard Pitino may have been the first, but he is far from the only suitor: "Snider, who withdrew his nearly 2-year-old pledge to U of L on Wednesday night, has added offers in the past day from UCLA, Texas A&M, Memphis and Vanderbilt and now has 11 in all, his father, Scott Snider, said Friday afternoon. Snider’s other offers are from Minnesota, coached by former U of L assistant Richard Pitino, Illinois, Marquette, Southern California, Connecticut, West Virginia and Loyola Marymount. Multiple other teams, including Indiana University, have expressed interest in Snider since news broke that he was reopening his recruitment."

The Courier-Journal's Adam Himmelsbach put the Snider situation in some perspective with this column, which he begins by saying: "Almost two years ago to the day, Quentin Snider received a scholarship offer from the University of Louisville. The point guard, still wiry and unknowing, was just a few months removed from his freshman year at Ballard High, and suddenly he had a golden ticket to join his favorite team ever. He giddily went home that night and talked to his parents — both of whom are Cardinals fans — and they realized they had little to talk about. This was Louisville. This was his dream. This was perfect."

Himmelsbach also writes that such an early commitment has the potential not to mean much: "According to a Sports Illustrated study of the top 100 prospects in each class from 2007 to 2011, 47.8 percent of those who committed three or more years before their freshman season later decommitted."

Go back far enough and Gophers fans remember former North High star Khalid El-Amin, who committed to Minnesota before his junior year of high school but changed his mind and ended up leading Connecticut to the 1999 NCAA championship, scoring the final four points of the title game to defeat Duke.

"You can blame this one on the media," Gophers coach Clem Haskins said at the time.

The Snider situation is stark contrast to the three Minnesota teenagers who are the focus of substantial attention right now: seniors Tyus Jones of Apple Valley, Reid Travis of DeLaSalle and Rashad Vaughn, the former Cooper star who will play his senior season at Nevada's Findlay Prep. All have waited to make their choice, which had brought them that much more recruiting-world attention, for better or worse.

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